Because the piece of promotional artwork marks her as a Token Loli, and she's seen with Mami and Kyoko.

Another thing. Homura is mentioned to be appearing in the series. Since it seems unlikely that Oriko will take place in the week between the beginning of Homura's Groundhog Day Loop and when Homura transfers to Madoka's school, it's possible that we will see Homura in the hospital, before the loop begins. A likely reason we would see her there is because Oriko is an Ill Girl too, and they're in the same hospital. Isn't there a theory about Charlotte being the Littlest Cancer Patient?

Oriko is not the girl with pigtails from the promotional art, but that girl could still be Charlotte.

Homura boldly kept Charlotte's grief seed, partially so Kyuubey wouldn't dispose of it and it could be useful (and keep it away from Sayaka and Madoka), and partially because she might have recognized Charlotte.

We may actually have a piece of evidence for this: Remember the runes in Episode 3? The one that basically went " OMNOMNOM Mami"? The line before that one is apparently the origin of Homura's Fan Nickname Homuhomu. Now remember the following: The runes are messages from the witch. Which means that Charlotte knew Mami and Homura's names!

Should be mentioned that if Oriko does call Homura Homuhomu it would still fit with her "people don't usually call me by my first name" statement in episode 10.

The above speculation was written when it was thought that Oriko would be a Prequel. Now it's unknown when it will take place, although this doesn't necessarily invalidate any of the speculation. Flashbacks are always possible.

Preview pages of Oriko have been revealed, and it looks like we've been trolled, the girl on the cover is NOT Oriko. In that sense, this theory is Jossed, but...

Oriko, the real Oriko, not the girl we thought was Oriko, is either Elsa Maria or Walpurgis Night

Again, minor visual details. The former is probably more likely.

Oriko Magica will, through whatever fashion, show us the past lives of the witches.

Because why not? They teased us with their silhouettes at the end of the anime. Under this theory, the girl on the right in the second cover is one of the silhouettes shown here◊. She's either the girl to the right of Kyouko, or the girl to the left of Mami.

In the preview pages, Oriko is looking at the witch she will become. It's large, with a frilly dress, and floating in a darkened sky, with only a few dying trees and buildings around. This is very similar to the scene Madoka saw in the first episode.

It's not said that that's the witch she will become. She appears to believes it's a witch she's destined to encounter

The biggest problem is that Walpurgisnacht is said to have been around for a long time.

Then again, it's said that Walpurgisnacht is made up of the spirits of many magical girls, so her fate may be to eventually become a part of it.

Either Kirika or Oriko will become Gertrud; that is to say one of them did become Gertrud in the anime's timeline.

One word: Roses.

Here's something to ponder. Oriko means "sewing lady" or "weaver girl". Based off the fact that she can apparently see the future, the inference might be "weaving the threads of fate". Now, what witch is associated with scissors - ie cutting the threads of fate? And going by an above WMG, what witch has a web made of threads?

Kirika's witch form isn't either of these, so that leaves Oriko.

In the anime, Yuma became Albertine

The writer of this WMG admits that at this point, stuff is being thrown at the wall to see what sticks.

This is how Mami knew Walpurgis Night was coming in the first timeline of episode 10; Oriko told Kyubey, who told Mami. What she saw next and what drives her future actions are entirely dependent on Homura, who is acting as a Butterfly Effect; her actions and changing goals alter Oriko's other predictions in each timeline, which is why there were no magical girl killings seen in the anime.

Oriko never predicted Walpurgis. She predicted Madoka's transformation in Gretchen. She may still have contracted, seen this and mentioned it other magical girls, but it's unlikely from Homura's comments that the timeline is irregular and the fact that Madoka exists in all the timelines, which would probably make her see the same vision of Gretchen each time, not Walpurgis.

Even if magical girl killings did occur in alternate timelines, Madoka's Cosmic Retcon will stop them from having happened.

It's very likely that Oriko and Kirika are trying to pre-emptively stop the creation of Walpurgis Night. Which means that no witches means no Walpurgis meaning no need to kill magical girls.

Madoka still dies or worse in the end.

So that Homura goes back. Also, it is in such as way that Homura attempting this method in later timelines; ie, getting to Madoka first, is no longer an option. Possibly by bombing Oriko's and Kirika's houses every timeline from here on. This gives Kyubey and Mami time to get to Madoka. But the alternative is worse.

Partially confirmed. Madoka does die.

This is all one of Homura's plans

One of the problems Homura has run into is that she needs to get close to Madoka to protect her from Kyuubey, but getting close to Madoka in itself at the very least makes her sacrifice herself to stop Walpurgisnacht, if not run into witches earlier. So Homura decided to have that weird oracle girl take care of all of the magical stuff for her. Not to mention that having one of the main heroes on the other side makes for good drama.

Jossed. Homura had no idea what was going on until Oriko and Kirika formed a witch barrier around Mitakihara Junior High.

Homura not caring about anyone but Madoka will come back to bite her in the ass.

How? Two words: Sayaka Miki. Poor girl cannot catch a break; why should here be any different? Homura will be so focused on keeping Madoka safe that she won't pay attention to what Miki's doing until she goes all magical girl on her, and that will end... badly. And that, of course, will be what brings Madoka back into the mix this time...

Homura is part of Madoka's social circle this time. This is the timeline she's least likely to miss something like Sayaka hanging out with Kyuubey.

Sort-of confirmed. By leaving Madoka alone, where she's protected, Madoka runs into her friends, Sayaka and Hitomi. The three girls go to back their friend Homura up, which gets Madoka killed and ends the happiest timeline for Homura.

Kirika isn't actually killing magical girls

She's just killing their bodies. A truly dead magical girl reverts to their civilian outfit, which her victims haven't.

Following from this, Yuma is important to Oriko's plans because she'll be able to revive everyone after it's all over.

Or it's worse: Kirika is stealing their Soul Gems, and Oriko has a way to turn them into Grief Seeds.

Kirika could be stealing their Soul Gems to prevent them from becoming witches, and Oriko might be collecting them thinking it's better this way...

The Yuma part is Jossed. Yuma was being used as a distraction for Kyubey, so that he wouldn't find Madoka and give Oriko enough time to take her out.

Kirika and Oriko are going to erase themselves from the timeline somehow in whatever they're doing.

This is in order to set into motion the sequence of events where Homura and Madoka interact such that the Walpurgisnacht will be defeatable. ("saving the world.")

Or perhaps Oriko is foreseeing even past that, seeing Madoka's capacity to change the entire system; but she'll need to create a schism between Homura and Madoka's friends.

Madoka is going to remain uncontracted in this timeline.

But Homura will still have to rewind because Kirika will kill Madoka. By doing so, Oriko prevents the greater evil, Kriemhild Gretchen, even though now there is no way to stop the lesser one, Walpurgisnacht.

There will be an epilogue explaining what happened to Oriko, Kirika and Yuma in the anime's timelines.

After Oriko killed Madoka, Homura didn't instantly rewind the time

Instead, she gives Mami, Kyouko, Yuma and herself time to beat the ever loving shit out of Kyubey for tricking them in the first place, till they're satisfied. Only after that she rewinds time. "Everyone Hates Kyubey" becomes a reality.

This might be canon; Homura might only be able to rewrite time after/during Walpurgisnacht.

No, Homura rewinds time as soon as Madoka dies or becomes a witch; she doesn't even have a choice in the matter, in that it happens automatically. Otherwise, she's acting outside of her wish. But since the timelines she leaves behind persist in their existence after she leaves them, everyone can still hate Kyubey.

Gen Urobuchi has stated that Homura has to wait a whole month before she can use her time travel ability again. Fortunately, the previous world is not erased by Homura but continues to exist alongside the next world as a parallel world.

...Fortunately? If that's true, and it applies to all timelines, then it means that Homura's influence essentially led to a huge amount of destruction across many worlds, especially the ones in which Madoka became Kremhild Gretchen, none of which was actually "reset".

Presumably this was fixed by Madoka's wish; which apparently bypasses the "time travel creates an Alternate Universe" scenario.

Though this timeline is actually pretty well off. There are at least three Puella Magi left to fight Walpurgisnacht, one of which having healing powers so death is unlikely, and corruption is also unlikely as in the first chapter, Kyouko stated that she had more Grief Seeds than she could use alone. Madoka is dead so she can't become Gretchen. And with the three Puella Magi learning and coming in terms with their fate but still determined to fight on, they'll probably do whatever they can to prevent Kyubey from contracting others. So hey, maybe Oriko did at least save this timeline.

As of the end of the anime, Walpurgisnacht did not ever exist, so there is no threat to the world. In fact most of this manga events (besides the same people becoming magical girls) probably never happened, because they retroactively had no reason to happen. As about beating on Kyubey, well, he remained unharmed when the Earth was eaten by Krimhild Gretchen and then at least the Milky Way and surrounding region of space blown up by Madoka. True form of "hardware" on which his consciousness actually runs is probably beyond human imagination, and spending effort on destroying drone bodies of his pre-retcon self only plays into his hand.

There are no magical-girl killings in the canon timeline...

.., because Oriko foresaw not the end of the world, but Madoka becoming a god and rewriting reality. So she decided not to kill magical girls, but rather let them all live so that the future she saw would happen.

It would explain Oriko's and Kirika's absence in the last timeline of the anime. She would not want to risk the Golden Ending by getting herself involved.

But where were they in the other timelines?

Explaining their non-appearence in timeline three is easy: Walpurgisnacht is defeated and Madoka's request for a Mercy Kill prevents Kriemhild Gretchen's existence and the need to intervene. The other timelines are less explainable (we do not know which KG was the first unstoppable global threat), especially timeline four makes little sense.

Incorrect. Oriko's wish was to know the purpose of her life, not to see the future. For all we know, in an alternate timeline, she instead saw herself becoming a witch...

Her wish resulted in her oracle ability. The powers that come with wishes tend to subsume them.

Alternately, Oriko and Kirika contracting was just a fluke and in other timelines neither of them became Magical Girls. We know Sayaka wasnt a Magical Girl in the first two timelines and didnt contract in this one so the possibility of contracting isnt set in stone

Margot is the witch name of Kirika.

This page shows a sign that reads "Margot(unreadable) Garde(unreadable)", probably the witch's name and her "garden", which is lined with roses. It points into the center of her barrier, where she and Oriko are waiting.

Everything happened exactly as Kyubey wanted.

Oriko believed that contacting Madoka was a top priority to him, that's why she engineered most of the plot... but Kyubey wasn't too fast to mobilize other magical girls against her even though he was implied to know about Oriko's scheme far before taking any actions (considering his ability to read thoughts, anything else would have been surprising, really). When Oriko's plan actually was put into motion, Kyubey had plenty of opportunity to contract Madoka, while everyone was busy fighting Oriko and Kirika, and Madoka was running from monsters. Instead, he went to watch the fight. He didn't care when Madoka died, offering no real comments, and treating this event as completely insignificant to him. Most likely (due to being, again, a telepath), he knew very well what Homura is up to. His main goal was forcing Homura to rewind time again, sending her on another cycle of supercharging eventual ultimate-timeline Madoka, and his secondary goal was destroying Oriko, just because he eliminates magical girls who dare to plot against him (and aren't useful to him) on principle. Note, that the final confrontation as it actually happened would have fulfilled both of these goals with any realistic outcome. Save for Homura's death in battle, but considering the nature of her power, the possibility of her being instantly destroyed before she can go into a timestop or jump timelines again was extremely slim.

That makes no sense in Puella Magi Madoka Magica Kyubey didn't know Homura was a time traveller until she killed him with bullets before he could contract Madoka. He can't read thoughts he can communicate telepathically. There is a difference.

He can not only read thoughts but effortlessly serve as a thought relay between chosen humans. He can even hijack parts of a human brain to create complicated controlled hallucinations. And as about it not knowing that Homura was a time traveller until the scene at the fountain... he doesn't even actually say that. Take note "Now I know what your power is" implies "I didn't know that before now" but does not actually state the latter and we all know that QB's words must always be taken at their strictest and most literal meaning, because he deceives people by providing them correct pieces and letting their imaginations paint wrong pictures on their basis (even assuming he never lies outright which is practically impossible to prove).

Oriko and Kirika contracting always happens. The anomaly is that Homura was somehow going to end in this timeline.

She made a mistake at the very beginning of the timeline, perhaps letting Kyubey find out she's a time traveler, and her defeat was inevitable. Homura would be killed by a witch or another magical girl, or fall into despair, like she started to do at the end of the canon timeline. Oriko didn't just see a vision of Gretchen; she also saw Homura's defeat. The apocalypse is nothing compared to the loss of the one person who can hit the reset button. In normal timelines, Oriko foresaw Homura preparing to go back, and that gave her enough hope that she couldn't commit to mass murder.

Oriko and Kirika don't show up in other timelines, because Homura kills them.

Pretty much Exactly What It Says on the Tin. It seems to be the default explanation in Fan Fic, so I figured it should be up for discussion. Homura certainly could do it, with great ease, and she's just ruthless enough to do so

In the other timelines, Oriko kills herself instead of contracting.

When kyubey first appeared to Oriko, she had crossed the Despair Event Horizon from being ostracized by her peers due to her politician father embezzling funds and committing suicide upon being caught, which led to her falling from a highly respected figure to a social reject. Perhaps Kyubey never showed himself to Oriko, in which case she probably gave up on living and was Driven to Suicide. With Oriko dead, Kirika has no reason to contract or if she had by that point, then she could have witched out from grief.

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